Early summer fun

Who doesn't love a picnic at the park?! We took the kids and a pizza down to Esther Short Park in downtown Vancouver for a little fun in the sun.




Vancouver's Hilton hotel is sponsoring a free summer movie series played outdoors at dusk in a couple locations downtown. The premiere event was a showing of "Happy Feet" on July 3rd. It was a BLAST! The kids stayed up 'til 11:00pm and loved every minute of it.




With no formal plan for the 4th ever coming up, we packed the kids up and decided to head down the Columbia River Gorge. It is so beautiful this time of the year. We got off the main highway after a while and took the Columbia Gorge Scenic Highway, stopping at one of the falls near Multnomah Falls. We spent some time "exploring" a running creek and having a wonderful picnic lunch.












We were just about to leave this spot by a railroad track when we suddenly heard a faint train whistle. Seconds later this train came roaring by. We waved to the conductor, who waved back...and boy was that train loud.



Back home on the afternoon of the 4th, Evan spent some time cooling off in his little pool. He found one of the millions of little, green tree frogs in our area and put it on his shoulder.

By nightfall the kids were roaring for some explosions! They weren't disappointed. A few families in our neighborhood go all out on the 4th, and this year was no exception. There were fireworks of all sizes for hours. Kids and parents alike had a blast.